Sabotaging America: The Obama Energy Agenda

The Obama administration’s lack of any coherent, realistic energy policy is providing Republican candidates with a good deal of ammunition, as gas prices and oil prices continue to rise. The issue has put the president on the defensive as the specter of five dollar per gallon gas this summer gives Team Obama heartburn.

“It’s the easiest thing in the world (to) make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices,” Obama said, speaking at the University of Miami yesterday. “What’s harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem that may not be solved in one year or one term or even one decade.”

Indeed. Clearly, making a serious, sustained commitment to a sound energy policy is well beyond this administration’s capabilities. Rather than investing in proven, affordable and plentiful sources of domestic energy, Obama has thrown billions of tax dollars away in misguided efforts to find pixie dust solutions to America’s energy needs.

From wind, to solar, to bio-fuels, the president has abandoned the free market to cast his lot in with the most extreme of environmental utopians and we’re all paying the price for his folly. This president, who asserts that America’s future depends on science and technology, has yet to even come to grips with the basic laws of thermodynamics. That level of scientific ignorance doesn’t bode well for consumers, or for Obama’s re-election prospects.

The president has tried to blame rising gas prices on factors that are beyond his control, such as increased demand from China and India, increasing tension with Iran and speculation in oil futures. While it’s accurate to say that America can do little to influence those factors, it’s entirely disingenuous to ignore the fact that we could have – and should have – taken action to mitigate those market effects.

We have seen crude demand in China and India rise steadily for over a decade now. That it continues to do so as those economies continue to grow shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all the president of the United States. The same holds true for the effect of the Iranian nuclear crisis. And, given all of the uncertainty and demand-side pressure, it’s clear that the free market is going to respond by hedging its bets in the form of rising oil future prices. The president sees the latter in terms of greedy speculation, but Obama has long-since abandoned any pretense of understanding – or caring – about the way that a healthy free market actually works.

Its funny how the pres isnt a scientist but he acts like he is. He acts like he knows everything and doesnt understand why people dont just bow to his almighty wisdom, hmm what does that sound like. Thanks bobo but I think I will stick with the energy source that contains more energy per drop than anything else except …………. uranium (ya we ought to be building new nuke plants as well). Anyway the pres only has so much time left to funnel money to his buddies before we get serious with this energy production thing.

Algea, there they go again taking a food source and using it up as "fuel". Actually I think its lefties that eat algea like its something special : )

old white guy

i really am tired of reading and hearing about obama and his destruction of the republic. i wish people would just do someting about it. he has committed impeachable offences . a republican would be in jail by now. the republicans spend their time in primaries giving the democrats all the talking points they need instead of slamming the administration at every opportunity. i'm just plain disgusted. the u.s. has lots of oil. force the basta-ds to drill for it.

waynamal

Mr.Obama is reported to have earned or given the magna cum laude, I guess it would take the level of egregia cum laude to see logic.

StephenD

So far, in just about every area, he has kicked the can down the road and been successful at distracting our attention. How else could you explain why there would be any question – that there would even be a contest, for him to be re-elected? Put up a list of his follies and it becomes a laughing stock. No budget, no jobs, no recalcitrant Iran, no peace seeking Palestinians, no improvement in minority communities, less quality education, more companies going overseas, more regulation and of course his Healthcare fiasco.
Now he promotes…Algea. What a dolt.
What's worse is the GOP hasn't ever really taken him to task. They spend their time showing us how we are hurt but never really show the connection to the current Administration. Do your job GOP! Present your plan and show his failure before it is too late.

Gary

Mr. Truzpek forgot that we now know that oil is abiotic: it is a geological resource, not a biological one. We are swimming in it, always have and always will. We just have to dig down a bit deeper to get at it.

Mike Elmore

United States imports of oil are at a 16 year low. United States is an exporter of gasoline. Now do the math, so that means we are taking our resources and sending them to China, India or where ever. What most people do not understand is that the United States government leases its minerals to large oil companies that then turn around and make billions selling the by produces to other countries. All the government makes is a little over 12 percent royalty on the oil and has to split that with the state that it is produced in.. The solution is to not let multinational oil corporations, that don't give a rats ass about America, take our resources and make money from Countries, that once again don't give a sh*t about America, while the American people are paying through the ass. This is the biggest theft on the American people and won't be solved by the greedy right or left any time soon because we'll hear all about free markets, yadee yadee, Get use to high gas prices and know that your resource is making some one in China real happy as they drive off to work taking another American factory job. I know I've over simplified this but the point is valid. Mike Elmore

Theo Prinse

It was the 1976 CIA's document Team B competitive analysis report that was central to Reagan's policies and the current (sep 2011) Team BII "Shariah; The threat to America" report and the evil Clinton policy of "Muslim Outreach" should be central to Santorums policy as THE evil that is infiltrating US government and Institutions today.

In December the European Central Bank was awaiting their new (Roman & friend of Sarkozy) president Mario Draghi financial policy.

… It turned out to be the same as what Ben Bernanki did/does: lending money to banks for almost zero percentage interest … instead having western industrialized governments opt for Nuclear Energy and an Electric Automobile Industry and become independent from islam oil.

This zero interest policy is extremely dangerous setting the stage for precisely what the German politicians wanted to avoid when they entered the Euro of a Weimar situation leading to the financial disorder prior to the Hitler era.

What one has to bear in mind is that the US arranged the western world after WOII to pay islam-oil in US Dollars. So, no matter in what bad shape the US economy is .. the US dollar always receives plenty appreciation and remains the # one currency in the world emphasizing the US as the # ONE Super Power in the world. The US imports 1 billion a day, 3, 400 billion oil annual. OPEC cartel controls 78 % of the oil in the World. Oil dominates 95 % of the worlds transportation.
Jim Woolsey: Future Security Challenges and Oil Dependence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_ljsni6CkE&fe…
So Germany is a big player in Europe .. but not in the world.

2. The USA has a military expenditure three times bigger than Japan, the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia combined … Russia has a BNP similar to that of the Dutch.
What many people don't understand is that military arms (and systems) .. is the number one investment in any (US) technological and industrial complex .. Germany has – since the defeat in 1945 – a constitutional embargo on their army.
So Germany is a big player in Europe .. but not in the world.

3. Germany is economically strong in that it was forced to exercise huge austerity (2 trillion) to absorb Eastern Germany. That's where Germany competitive workforce today originates from in comparison to that of South European countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece.

4. Germany is gas energy dependent from Russia and has a strong Coal and Steel industrial base .. France does not. But the French are rich and politically very influential and they have a nuclear device.

So, all in all .. It is difficult to judge the position of the Dutch. The Dutch are the import and export harbor of Germany and the Dutch will financially and monetarily follow Germany. If Germany sticks with the Euro .. so the Dutch will. Vice verse.

5. Greece is a pivot in the European perhaps in the whole International monetary mechanics. If Greece falls – and it is better that Greece falls – it will cascade other countries and ultimately the Euro to fall and this will geo-politically change many political and economical relations. For example. When Assads Syria falls there will be need for a Alevite province and that would apply for the Syrian Kurds as well.

6. So .. the geo-political discussion is not about Germany and how competitive Germany is … but about America. China, on which the US is economically very depending for their cheap consumer products … and Saudi Arabia oil which the US is militarily very depending on which two relations are (now) defining the course of the US and consequently that of the entire world … Germany with it.

The US is cutting on their huge defense so drastically that it will have huge effects on the worlds economy as well. It is why the Sunni fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia are allowed by the US to take over the entire north of Africa all the way up to Nigeria (Boko Haram and Kenya Al Sabaab) It is why the US is glad the(ir) Al Qaeda is now in Syria "preventing" the US from interfering in the secret Saudi war in Syria.

All the above is to be projected against the background of the US presidential election of course. The current puppet in the White House of the Muslim-Outreach Islam-oil clique of Exxon, GM, Clinton raised the US debt ceiling from 14 to 15 trillion. This trillion is to be perceived on top of the lousy 200 million USD the democrats have for their re-election ….

Regarding rising fuel prices: I have been saying for years that if it is true (an important if, I admit) that buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is leading either to global warming or some other environmental consequence, than high gas prices (whatever is causing that to happen) serve a redeeming social purpose in creating firm and yes, painful but also very flexible incentive for each of us do do whatever we find convenient to reduce our motor fuel usage.

My take on this issue is this: if there's a legitimate need to reduce carbon dioxide buildup in our atmosphere, mother nature doesn't care whether you reduce your motor fuel usage by driving a smaller car, or by driving less, or by car-pooling. Or, by using carbon-neutral fuels like ethanol or fuels derived from algae. So ironically, if Obama is guilty of manipulating gas prices upward, this would amount to conformance with the conservative/Republican idea of using quasi-free market incentives rather than centralized government micro-management to reduce our nation's collective CO2 footprint.

mrbean

You are too stupid to even suspect you are stupid – just another an indoctrinate regurgitating his leftist pablum.

pagegl

The oeprative phrase is "if it is true". The left loves to parrot the BS line about the science of global warming being settled. The problem for the left is that the science is NOT settled. That's not the way science works; it is a constant process of trying to find a way to explain what we observe. Our CO2 footprint is negligible compared to the effects of solar energy, something a lot of physicists are trying to point out to the global warming crazies. If you truly feel, like so many others on the left, that CO2 is causing global warming please do not exhale, you would only be contributing to the problem you think exists.

Alex Kovnat

Mr. Bean, calm down. Take a few deep breaths. If it so turns out that there is no need for us to worry about carbon dioxide, if you can prove that CO2-phobia (unlike Islamophobia!) is unjustified, I would then agree that we should build the Keystone pipeline and that we should drill for oil in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and other places.

We should however be clear about what we mean by "should". I can see a point (provided that is, that CO2 is not the real issue) to government ALLOWING the Keystone pipeline to be built, and ALLOWING oil drilling in Alaska and other places. But I don't believe government should in any way subsidize the above.

pagegl

The Keystone pipeline was going to be completely privately funded. Other than the hysteria from the enviros that it would cause irreparable damage to the environment (something that 3 years of research has said will not happen), the project would have been (and, with any luck, can still be) a win for the American people.

Obama denying the project was nothing more that another payoff to the radical left and other supporters. And probably part of an attempt to force gas prices to be equal to Europe's; he could do this easuily with taxes, but that wouldn't go over so well in an election year.

mrbean

Notice the typical leftist reveresal of responsibility: Kovnat posts: "if you can prove that CO2-phobia (unlike Islamophobia!) is unjustified," Sorry the burden of proof is on the advocator not the doubter! Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the principal gas that trees and other plants need to survive, just like oxygen (O2) is the principal gas that humans and other animals require. Trees absorb CO2 and release O2 — animals inhale O2 and exhale CO2. See how nice this all works! Earth's first, primitive forests made their prolific debut 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period. Before then, the atmosphere held far more CO2 but concentrations declined throughout the Carboniferous Period as plants flourished. During the Carboniferous Period the atmosphere became greatly depleted of CO2 (declining from about 2500 ppm to 350 ppm) so that by the end of the Carboniferous the CO2-impoverished atmosphere was less favorable to plant life and plant growth slowed dramatically. Today, CO2 concentrations are barely at 380 ppm — still CO2-impoverished. Many scientists strongly believe that we should be trying to produce more CO2, not less. And for good reason.

pyeatte

The XL is to be privately funded and will not cost the taxpayer a penny. In fact, to start with, the government will make lots of money in reduced unemployment checks.

Asher

Gas, food, and Oil prices going up. I hope all are prepared for our future. Obama is doing all he can to destroy our society, our prosperity, and our peace!

Asher

The Prez would rather loose his job and have the US in decline than give up on his Radical Environmental Agenda.

pyeatte

Well at least we stand a good chance of getting rid of him in Nov.

Leland

So called progressive politicians believe they know what is best for the country and its citizens. Their assumption is that ordinary people are unable, unwilling or too stupid to act in their own best interest. Consequently, the police power of government is employed to control oil supplies. If market forces were the principal determinante of petroleum supply in the US, does anyone think we would be on our way to $5 per gallon gas? Increased US production would tend to stabilize world oil prices. OPEC's ability to set prices would be diminished. Progressive arrogance combined with extreme enviormentalism has limited production and created conditions where Obama's goal of higher energy prices appears to have been realized. $5.00 per gallon may be the good news – $10 is on the horizon.

deanr

Earth is still the water planet, the oceans where our oxygen comes from. CO2 in concentrate is not pollution, neither water vapor.
California has a large economy and as of this year it has imposed a cap and trade tax on to it's people. Helpping the gasoline spike? Another regulatory wet blanket.
Now we get vast solar plants raping our deserts of their beauty. Now is the best time to start drilling off our coast. We have the best multinational corporate knowhow righthere.
We need natual gas/gasoline hybrid cars in the Golden State.
I've driven electric and natual gas vehicles extensively.
If in electric don't turn on the radio, if you can even get AM, or the defroster, the A/C, don't start rolling the windows up and down, best to keep it under 45MPH. EMF. If you don't drive an electric car, don't push them on the people.
My ode to the gasoline spike. Thank You. J.M.J.

pyeatte

So now we have…Algae. I guess the first question to ask is: how much energy does it take to make a gallon of algae-based fuel? I suspect it is more than what the gallon of algae-based fuel can provide.
Whats next, algae-based cookies as a politically-correct food source? I guess it would be sort of like "Soylent Green" without the dying.
Definition for — politically-correct: the belief that one can pick up a tu*d by the clean end.

march4u

Mr. Rich Trzupek, you are a smart man!

W. C. Taqiyya

I agree with Asher. It seems to me that Obama is not interested enough to learn how awful his policies really are. He behaves like an enraptured student sitting at the feet of his professors. He is blindly following the leftist yarn that the free market is evil and unfair. He doesn't know any better and he's happy in his ignorant bliss. Obama's handlers are happy too. Although, I'll bet they wish Obama could finish a complete sentence on any subject without a prompter. Anyway, someone send Obama a memo that scientists already know how to extract fuel from algae. But, it's more inefficient that making ethanol. Oh, to live in Obama's dream reality, where speaking makes it so and the very laws of nature bend to your will. Except the evil free market of course.

WilliamJamesWard

I remember Jimmy Carter promising energy independence in the "70's and lip service from the
White House ever since but hey look where we are, being squeezed by the oil co's and political
policy to take us for almost every last penny we have. On all fronts economically and in every
aspect of our lives we clearly become herd cattle for the elites or the biggest cons around.
Obama, Gore, Clinton, Soros and their flunkies in the people's house where criminal sellout
is the daily business. Our tax dollars are being stolen to put into scam fronts where the funds
are paid out for jobs that are useless but support the indoctrinated trash gushing out of our
Universities……………………………………………………………………………………William

Matt

Things can always get worse, FLEC in Cabinda and militants in the delta are not blowing things up yet. If people recall all that was going on prior to the bubble bursting. Iran roll out new weapons half of them are just for show to try to push up oil prices and as in 2008, hold war games, make stupid comments and use assets in Africa. So Barry ordering silence on loose talk, will not stop the oil price from rising.

Just like in Russia or the Arab Spring reverse the psychological subjugate and Barry will get his 3 am red phone call, it will be telling him crude prices have just gone up $40 US a barrel.

Imntreble

Your IQ is sufficiently low to get a government job; possibly even as one of Obama's closest advisors. Maybe a new CZAR position?